14 September 2012

"Interview with Maria Trujillo

I am delighted to share an interview with Maria Trujillo. Maria
was born in Bogota, Colombia (South America) but now lives in Dunedin,
New Zealand.

Gill McC - How long have you been keeping travel journals and what inspired you start?Maria T. - I started keeping
illustrated journals ten years ago, but didn't get started with travel
journals until three years ago. I thought it would be nice to keep a
record of my travels for fun and to keep memories of them. I was
inspired by various artist journals I found in books and the web. Some
of my favourites and most inspiring have been Gwen Dhien and her
Decorated Page book, Martha McEvoy's Trumpetvine Travels website, Mari
Le Glatin Keis' The Art Of Travel With A Sketchbook book, Gay Kraeger's
and Christina Loop's Watercolor Journaling video, Hannah Hinchman's and
Cathy Johnson's books, Dory Kanter's Art Escapes book.

Gill McC -Do you have a favourite type of journal?Maria T.- I like small format not
bigger than 8x5 inches, even 5 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches. I started using
spiral bound notebooks with cartridge paper, then I moved on to
Moleskine sketchbook but didn't like the paper for watercolor and I
don't use the watercolor moleskine because I prefer the portrait format.
I am binding my own now with Fabriano Artistico Hot Press watercolor
paper 200 g and 300 g. Another little book I am using at the moment and I
am liking is called Imaginote, it has 90g bleached kraft paper, half of
the book is plain and half graph. 6 1/2 x 4 1/2 inches. The paper
buckles with washes but I don't mind, and I can practice calligraphy on
the graph paper.

Gill McC -What media do you like to use when you are travelling?Maria T.- My favourites are ink,
watercolor and collage with found ephemera from the trip. The tools are
small and easy to carry around. Sometimes I use watercolor pencils too.
At the beginning when I started, I used a lot of different media in the
process, colored pencils, water-soluble crayons, acrylic paints,
pastels, gesso, gouache, you name it, but my favorite is definitely
watercolor.

Gill McC -Do you have any tips for 'journaling on the move?Maria T. - My travel kit is constantly
changing depending on the style I am using. At the moment I am into
water-colour journaling so I carry with me a small kit in my bag all the
time, and some other things in my suitcase.
TRAVEL KIT (with me all the time)

Gill McC -Do you complete your journal entry 'on-site' or do you continue working on it when you get home?Maria T. - If I have time I try to
finish the sketches on-site, but some times I just do a sketch and
finish the colouring later at the hotel or where I am staying, out of
photographs and color notes, but before the trip ends. I do collage with
found ephemera at the hotel or where I am staying too.

Gill McC -Please share a couple of your travel journal pages with us -
Maria T. - The page on the left was
one of my first travel journal pages done in September 2008 during a
weekend I spend with my husband in Quito (Ecuador). Back then I wasn't
confident about drawing so I made a collage mainly with the tickets from
the places we visited. It was an amazing trip, we where treated like
royalty by Andrew's colleague and his wife. When I see this page I can
go back and enjoy the trip again.

I like the page on the right a lot, it was the first travel journal
map I made. It was a weekend we spent in Wanaka (NZ) visiting some
friends. We went and came back using different routes...The landscape
was different, both ways beautiful. I can remember this spot clearly
when I see this page...the smell...the temperature...the light...that's
the beauty of travel journaling, you can be back to the moment in a
second!

Gill McC -When you look back at past journals, in what way do you feel you have benefited, rather than had you simply kept a photo album?Maria T. - It is a different kind of
memory. The photos are accurate records of a place and moment, but while
I take them it is like they steal the moment from my memory to put it
in the picture, like missing the moment... I don't know it is difficult
to put it in words...the journal takes more time, sometimes I can't do
as much as I would have wanted (I am not yet as fast as I would like to
be sketching) but when I revisit the pages is like living the moment
vividly again, with all my senses... the pictures don't give me
that...plus I feel proud when I look at what I have done...I suppose for
a photographer it is the opposite!

Gill McC -Anything else you'd like to share?Maria T. - My husband is very proud of
my journals, when he tells someone about our trips or suggests places to
people he shows them my pages. He says "WE can remember everything with
your journals".

10 September 2012

I think a nice way to celebrate it is with a giveaway. During this week I was thinking about something special for the giveaway but non of the ideas seemed enough for such an special occasion.

MagaMerlina has given me something I had lost: the passion for life, the looking forward to a new project, the meaning to what I create, a purpose.... Don't get me wrong, I have everything I could ask for, a wonderful husband, a wonderful daughter, my siblings, family, dear friends, health, etc, etc...but I needed something of my own again, that is why MagaMerlina is so special.

Yesterday I decided to make something new, aqua butterflies, an original watercolor-acrylic ink painting to celebrate.

Leave a comment here telling what you like about MagaMerlina and you are on for the giveaway. You have all the week to participate. I will announce the winner next Monday 17th of September around lunch time (NZ time of course).
Thank you to all of you who have supported me, followed, read, seen and comment, here on Flickr, Etsy and Facebook.

04 September 2012

It's been a long time since I stitched last time, more than three
years since I made the last cloth doll. I had forgotten how fun it is!

This doll has been outlined with a Copic Multiliner SP and colored with Faber-Castell Pitt Artist pens. I chose these pens because they have waterproof-archival inks. Now I'm adding some beads here and there.